Derby Platform 7 - Why isn't it used? (and other unused platforms)

[150249]

Exeter St Davids platform 2 is very rarely used in routine service (I am not prepared to say never as haven't time to check all running records). It was used initially for Okehampton services but these now usually run through from Exeter Central using platform 3

You explained it better than me

Exeter St David's Platform 2 was never used in service. It was just an extra siding. Now that the Okehampton service has come back, it gets use every now and then.

 

[Jessicas Dad]

4 & 5 aren’t signalled for passenger use. Is there anything that terminates at Stirling these days?

Very little,

The only 2 services I can find are the LNER 1W22 Kings Cross to Stirling at 20:12 and Scotrail 2N70 from Alloa at 23:55

 

[timatheronwood]

Does platform 0 at Theale get any use? It has access to and from the car park but since electrification works finished it seems to be a spare platform.

 

[that1pepfan]

Train 5C35 At platform 7

It is used

 

[LowLevel]

Train 5C35 At platform 7

It is used

It is used many times a day by empty stock movements, but never by passenger trains except in an emergency. Authority to use it is very occasionally granted but is most unusual.

 

[TrainTrackJack]

Worcester Shrub Hill platform 3

 

[Aedaxeon]

Is anything timetabled into P1 or P3 at Manchester Oxford Road? In my experience P3 only seems to be used during minor disruption and P1 during major disruption.

 

[Class800]

Is anything timetabled into P1 or P3 at Manchester Oxford Road? In my experience P3 only seems to be used during minor disruption and P1 during major disruption.

Right now we have 14.25 from Manchester Oxford Rd to Liverpool Lime St on P3 and it's not showing on real time trains in red, which would be a platform change so I think it's timetabled.

 

[Efini92]

Is anything timetabled into P1 or P3 at Manchester Oxford Road? In my experience P3 only seems to be used during minor disruption and P1 during major disruption.

There used to be evening lime st services booked off 1. Not sure if they still run.

 

[richard1976]

Only one of the platforms at Bordesley can only be used regularly

 

[louis97]

Does platform 0 at Theale get any use? It has access to and from the car park but since electrification works finished it seems to be a spare platform.

Its known as platform 3, and as its on the goods loop its use has to be specially authorised, so it gets no regular planned use.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Platform 2 at Twickenham, a London-facing bay, has had the track relaid, and crossovers now permit direct running into it from the down line, albeit with a few hundred yards of wrong-line running on the up fast and up slow, but I don't think it's been used much, if at all. The recent rebuilding of the station buildings has allowed space at the country end for the bay to become a through line, but, seeing how little the bay is used, I doubt if it will become a through line for the foreseeable future.

 

[Sheridan]

Is anything timetabled into P1 or P3 at Manchester Oxford Road? In my experience P3 only seems to be used during minor disruption and P1 during major disruption.

Up til May 2022 (and possibly beyond) there used to a be a Northern Manchester Airport-Windermere or Barrow that was booked for P1, it departed the airport just ahead of a TfW to Chester, but it waited in P1 while the TfW overtook it in P2. I don’t think this happens any more though.

 

[323235]

How often is this a problem? Trains wouldn't ordinarily terminate at Stockport in either direction.

I think the main issue with Platform 0 is that I believe it was meant to have a dedicated track onto the Buxton line as part of the 2004 modernisation but this was curtailed due to budget cuts. The platform was then a white elephant until it came into use mid timetable in 2008 iirc.

The current signalling system makes it difficult to have a train in 0 and 1 at the same time (the quickest I’ve seen is one departing as the other is arriving) even if one train is right behind the other.

Plus I believe Avanti decided to cut the dedicated member of staff at certain hours for Platform 0, as it wasn’t operationally necessary.

 

[LowLevel]

I think the main issue with Platform 0 is that I believe it was meant to have a dedicated track onto the Buxton line as part of the 2004 modernisation but this was curtailed due to budget cuts. The platform was then a white elephant until it came into use mid timetable in 2008 iirc.

The current signalling system makes it difficult to have a train in 0 and 1 at the same time (the quickest I’ve seen is one departing as the other is arriving) even if one train is right behind the other.

Plus I believe Avanti decided to cut the dedicated member of staff at certain hours for Platform 0, as it wasn’t operationally necessary.

I went into Stockport 0 on a late runner the other day - it was the first time in years!

 

[Signal Head]

I think the main issue with Platform 0 is that I believe it was meant to have a dedicated track onto the Buxton line as part of the 2004 modernisation but this was curtailed due to budget cuts. The platform was then a white elephant until it came into use mid timetable in 2008 iirc.

The current signalling system makes it difficult to have a train in 0 and 1 at the same time (the quickest I’ve seen is one departing as the other is arriving) even if one train is right behind the other.

Plus I believe Avanti decided to cut the dedicated member of staff at certain hours for Platform 0, as it wasn’t operationally necessary.

It wasn't budget cuts, it was the realisation that the proposed signalling system would have had difficulty coping with the layout and/or timetable.

Under the proposed layout, Platform 1 would have become the Up Fast, 2 the Down Fast. 3 and 4 the Slows. This ironed out the crossing movements at Slade Lane Junction, but of course the Up platforms at Levenshulme and Heaton Chapel are now on the Fast, where you want to run a London every 20 minutes, plus XC, TPE, etc. Crossing stopping Buxton trains (and potentially anything else going via the Hope Valley) over to the Slow at Heaton Norris Junction to get out of the way means crossing back over at Edgeley Junction, so Platform 0 was the alternative, to allow Buxton/Hope Valley services to be recessed without crossing the layout twice.

After completion, it wasn't brought into regular use, basically it's not really needed in normal working, it 'costs' an extra staff member for dispatch, and transferring between it and the rest of the station takes time (especially once ticket gates went in as P0 is outside the gateline).

I heard a rumour the local council (who may have part-funded it) eventually asked awkward questions, as a result of which NR issued instructions to use it for everything turning left at Edgeley.

 

[Tomnick]

I think the main issue with Platform 0 is that I believe it was meant to have a dedicated track onto the Buxton line as part of the 2004 modernisation but this was curtailed due to budget cuts. The platform was then a white elephant until it came into use mid timetable in 2008 iirc.



The current signalling system makes it difficult to have a train in 0 and 1 at the same time (the quickest I’ve seen is one departing as the other is arriving) even if one train is right behind the other.



Plus I believe Avanti decided to cut the dedicated member of staff at certain hours for Platform 0, as it wasn’t operationally necessary.

Once or twice, I've followed (with a Norwich train) something up the Fast from Slade Lane. Probably the Chester train, which certainly used to tend to have quite a long dwell time at Stockport. This has invariably been to get around a stopper on the Up Slow. It made for quite a slick move, crossing from Up Fast into platform 1 whilst still permitting the stopper a clear run into platform 0.

 

[ShadowKnight]

Corrour station has a second platform (and siding?) That do not seem to have been used for some time

 

[Railsigns]

Corrour station has a second platform (and siding?) That do not seem to have been used for some time

Only one platform at Corrour is alongside a passenger line.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Thanks. I assumed that would probably be the case.

Platform 2 on the other hand...

Gets used every day. There is a unit stable there every night they forms one of the early New St trains and it is also used for terminating the Newark/Notts train if there is something in 4 (often a Northern or a class 730 LNWR)
Also works the other way, has been used plenty by Northern to stable a train and to hold a 730 during testing runs.

Of all platforms at Crewe, 10 is the one not used. Believe there's still issues with the trackwork on the junction, that and it only goes to Chester.

Only one of the platforms at Bordesley can only be used regularly

Which one? When I worked on those lines we stopped there both ways when Birmingham City were at home, does this not happen now?

Also, the bay platform at Rugby - have used recently when the WCML was shut between Stafford and Rugby, but guessing nothing is booked to use it (or uses it outside of engineering works)

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Only one of the platforms at Bordesley can only be used regularly

Realtime Trains | Departures from Bordesley all day on 02/01/2023

Train information at Bordesley all day on 02/01/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Trains have been calling at both today, I don't know if it's related to football or not but if it is related to football would that be considered "regular"?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Realtime Trains | Departures from Bordesley all day on 02/01/2023

Train information at Bordesley all day on 02/01/2023. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Trains have been calling at both today, I don't know if it's related to football or not but if it is related to football would that be considered "regular"?

Indeed, there are STP diagrams for any BCFC home match (or at least were when I worked on the dark side). Not sure what @richard1976 meant really, every train going through Moor St goes past Bordesley, and as an island platform I'm not sure how only 1 can be used regularly.

 

[Kite159]

Indeed, there are STP diagrams for any BCFC home match (or at least were when I worked on the dark side). Not sure what @richard1976 meant really, every train going through Moor St goes past Bordesley, and as an island platform I'm not sure how only 1 can be used regularly.

When the kickball isn't on, it used to only get one train a week calling heading towards Birmingham. Nothing called heading away from Birmingham.

When the kickball is on it gets extra calls both directions

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Other unused platforms - 3 at Helsby (barely used now) and 4, which I don't think is used at all any more.

P3 and P4 are both used by the very sparse service on the Helsby - Ellesmere Port line.

P0 at Hooton is unelectrified and hardly used at all but I did see a railhead treatment train in it in November. The only sign identifying it as P0 is in the lift. Bay platform P1 is little used except for stabling. However the 2330 from Chester sometimes terminates in P1 on Saturdays.

Do the two bay platforms at Rock Ferry see any regular use? Ditto some of the six platforms at Southport?

 

[Kite159]

P3 and P4 are both used by the very sparse service on the Helsby - Ellesmere Port line.

P0 at Hooton is unelectrified and hardly used at all but I did see a railhead treatment train in it in November. The only sign identifying it as P0 is in the lift. Bay platform P1 is little used except for stabling. However the 2330 from Chester sometimes terminates in P1 on Saturdays.

Do the two bay platforms at Rock Ferry see any regular use? Ditto some of the six platforms at Southport?

The bays at Rock Ferry see more use for stabling, most services being ECS [i.e. 5R47 1920 Chester to Rock Ferry] with a very limited passenger use in a normal timetable [2Y00 0544½ Rock Ferry to Ellesmere Port being the sole passenger departure]

From a brief glance, looks like the only passenger use the bay at Hooton gets is the Saturdays only 2H02 2330 Chester to Hooton, starts from Hooton on the Sunday ECS to Chester.

 

[Dr_Paul]

There are scheduled services that use it - end-of-day services terminating at Kingston from the Twickenham direction, and the occasional random decision to terminate a late-running Waterloo-bound service there for operational convenience. It won't take more than 8 cars though, so there will be much less of this when if the Class 701s come in to service. (The signalling now allows Platform 2 to be used for reversal)

Yes, there's a signal at the town end of platform 2 that -- I think -- is a permanent red. Not having the bay available for 10-car 701s will indeed make the terminating of services at Kingston more difficult: if the Kingston loop service is only running Kingston to Waterloo via Richmond, it is possible to hold an eight-car train in the bay whilst a Shepperton service comes through, enabling passengers to change. This won't be possible with 10-car trains.

 

[Railsigns]

Yes, there's a signal at the town end of platform 2 that -- I think -- is a permanent red.

Yes, it's a fixed red (signal BEF2430).

 

[D1537]

Also, the bay platform at Rugby - have used recently when the WCML was shut between Stafford and Rugby, but guessing nothing is booked to use it (or uses it outside of engineering works)

There's a daily train - 1W18 0802 SX RUG-EUS, the unit for which comes empty from Bletchley.

I think there's a few on a Sunday as well.

 

[richard1976]

Does platform 2 at Doncaster get used at all

 

[D365]

Does platform 2 at Doncaster get used at all

I have seen Lincoln trains using Platform 2.